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Category 5 Cyclone Pam Devastates Vanuatu

Severe Tropical Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu late on March 13, packing wind gusts of up to 320 kilometers (200 miles) an hour, causing widespread damage in the archipelago nation in the South Pacific Ocean. Vanuatu's President Baldwin Lonsdale called the storm a "monster" that killed dozens, destroyed or damaged 90 percent of the buildings in the capital, and will force the nation to start anew. International aid agencies began emergency flights on Tuesday to some of the remote outer islands of Vanuatu, which they fear have been devastated. Officials are warning that Vanuatu now faces imminent food shortages, as aid agencies described conditions as among the most challenging they have ever faced.

Cyclone Pam bears down on Vanuatu in this image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite taken at 1:30 p.m. local time (2:20 GMT) on March 13, 2015. Not long after the image was acquired, the storm struck the island of Efate, which is home to Vanuatu's capital city, Port Vila. Winds of up to 250 kilometers an hour (155 mph) ripped metal roofs off houses and downed trees in the Pacific island nation on Saturday, as relief agencies braced for a major rescue operation and unconfirmed reports said dozens had already died.#

While needs assessments are underway and the first aid agencies are now reaching the areas surrounding Port Vila, people are already starting to pick up the pieces. This little boy put on his father’s gloves to help clean up the debris of his house.#

This photo taken on March 16, 2015, shows rescuers evacuating a resident onto a trailer and walking past a C-17. The aircraft was carrying relief and assistance as part of a trilateral disaster relief arrangement in the Pacific (FRANZ) between Australia, France, and New Zealand to cyclone-ravaged Vanuatu after Super Tropical Cyclone Pam tore through on March 13.#

A woman holds her 3-year-old outside their damaged home as night falls after Cyclone Pam in Tanna, about 200 kilometers from Port Vila, the capital city of the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, on March 17, 2015.#

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